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'SXSW': Michelle Monaghan On How Her Female-Driven Film 'Gus' Turned the Tables On On-Screen Fellatio

There's a very simple trick to getting 25-year-old guys to enjoy your smart, sensitive, indie comedy about female friendship: have a very funny, borderline-explicit BJ scene in it. Okay, so that's not the only reason they should like a movie like Gus, but star Michelle Monaghan acknowledged that might be why some dudes who attended the SXSW premiere of her new film liked it. Then again, Monaghan got a kick out of the scene herself.
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Monaghan plays Andie, a single, free-spirited woman who unexpectedly finds herself pregnant and offers to give the baby to her married best friend Lizzie (Radha Mitchell), who has struggled to start a family of her own. The scene in question finds Andie in an ill-advised hook-up with Lizzie's brother-in-law, Casey (Michael Weston). While she, well, fellates him, he tries to, well, guide her — much to her annoyance — so she gives him a piece of her mind. "When I read the script I was like, 'Please honey, we've all been there'," Monaghan said during a chat with Hollywood.com at SXSW. "I think it's just such a funny scene from a female perspective, and it's never been touched on before…so to speak. I just welcomed it."
The scene doesn't only go for a big laugh (though it got one with audiences here); it also turns the table on your typical sex scene, putting the guy in the vulnerable position and having her take control, something for which Monaghan praised her co-star. "Michael Weston is genius. His reaction to that scene, I thought, was much bolder than me actually having to go through the motions. He actually had to verbalize what he was going through. I think he did it in like one or two takes," Monaghan said, adding, "..because I'm that good. I'm sorry, I had to go there!"
It should be noted that at this point in the conversation, the room — which also included Mitchell and Gus' director Jessie McCormack — erupted with laughter at Monaghan's response. It's clear the women who worked together on screen bonded off screen, too. It was that very female-dominated set — in addition to the director, and the two leading ladies, Monaghan pointed out that the DP, editor, and producer were also women — that made the actress so happy to be part of the project.
RELATED: Anna Kendrick, Jake Johnson, and Ron Livingston Riff on 'Drinking Buddies' at SXSW
Monaghan, who has been paired on-screen as the significant other to the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal, Casey Affleck, and Robert Downey Jr., said she was thrilled to have a different kind of on-screen partnership for Gus. "It was so nice to have chemistry with another woman for a change," Monaghan said. "I'd never met Radha before but we hit it off like a house on fire."
She continued: "It was so amazing to be surrounded by all these talented and creative women. It just solidified the fact that I want to continue to work with more and more women. I just finished a film a couple of months ago with another female director and it was so great. It's just a different kind of approach, its not better, necessarily, or worse, just a different way to approach things through the storytelling or the way that you talk about the characters. It's nice to have that balance."
Monaghan said she's encouraged by the shift in Hollywood toward more strong female characters like Andie — "She's unlike any character I've ever played. She's incredibly loose and she's overtly comedic. So that was a real welcome for me." — and more movies about and for women. "I think that weird rumor or idea in Hollywood that people don't want to see female-driven movies couldn't be further from the truth. Women buy tickets to movies," Monaghan said. "I think one of the reasons Jessie really wanted to make [Gus] was because she was like, 'I can't remember the last time that I saw [a movie with] two female leads that was really exploring women's friendship.' I thought she explored it really, really honestly and beautifully."
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The actress, who said she has no immediate plans to direct herself, added that she hopes films like Gus will inspire young, female filmmakers. "I think that's why it's important with film festivals like SXSW... for people in the audience to be part of these screenings and to see other young filmmakers, female filmmakers, at the screenings, in the audience, at the Q&amp;As, and be encouraged by it. To see there's a reality out there that is in the zeitgeist, that it is something you can do: It is a possibility."
[Photo credit: Erica Parise]
Follow Aly on Twitter @AlySemigran
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When you think of SXSW, the image of indie bands, movie premieres, tech talks where the word "innovative" is used a lot, and of course, those famous Austin breakfast tacos immediately springs to mind. But television has also become one of the key components of the festival, with panels and screenings becoming a one of the must-experience destinations of the event. It's no surprise really, considering the quality level of television out there right now.
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Just ask Aaron Tveit, the bona fide Broadway star who had his big screen breakout as Enjolras in the Oscar-winning adaptation of Les Misérables. The 29-year-old actor who has Hollywood knocking, went with a small screen project, the upcoming USA procedural Graceland, which had its world premiere at the Austin Museum of Art at SXSW on Monday night.
Hollywood.com caught up with Tveit at the roof party that followed the Graceland premiere (which featured, among other highlights, a digital paint display) and cast Q&amp;A explained his reasoning for choosing to do television after the success of Les Mis was simple: "I think the best writing right now is in television." He continued, "I'm a huge television watcher, I'm a fan of Mad Men and Breaking Bad. Those shows I think, but obviously starting with The Sopranos and The Wire, are why you're seeing film actors who would have never done TV before, all of a sudden want a series. The stigma [about TV] is gone."
While Tveit is by no means a stranger to television (he'd had minor roles on Gossip Girl and Law &amp; Order: SVU), it's his first lead in a series. In Graceland — which seemed to play well to the SXSW audience who laughed along with all the quippy, USA-brand of dialogue in the pilot — Tveit plays a rookie FBI agent named Mike Warren who lives in a dream-like beachfront home with other FBI officials, like hotshot agent Paul Briggs (Daniel Sunjata).
RELATED: SXSW: Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick, and Ron Livingston Riff on 'Drinking Buddies'
"Other television work that I've done has been a lot of guest star stuff, so you're kind of the not-important person on the schedule when you're shooting as a guest star, but with this I'm working all the time. I love being at work everyday," Tveit said. The actor said that he was up for the "six month grind of non-stop" television shooting, thanks largely in part to his Broadway background. "Being on stage all the time I know you have to keep yourself in shape, so I just treated it the same way."
Tveit not only credited the USA network for making his transition to TV leading man an easy one ("When I found it was USA, I could instantly picture how they were gonna do it and it was going to look like and fully supported. They give their shows every opportunity to succeed," he said), but his castmates, including Sunjata, Vanessa Ferlito, Serinda Swan, Manny Montana, and Brandon Jay McLaren, who were all on hand for the SXSW premiere.
"It's a group of actors that, from day one, everyone was just ready to play ball with each other," Tveit said. "Telling this story is a very collaborative effort, our writers encourage us to bring our ideas and we have a lot of influence over our characters and the story that we're telling. In that same regard, there's a lot of improvisation and stuff is very free-flowing. It lifts the material off the page, because we all do really get along. I think the material can crackle when you have that kind of rapport."
But Broadway fanatics who want to see Tveit back on stage singing again (and there were quite a few in the crowd at SXSW, as the actor received the most questions from giddy audience members during the post-screening session), don't worry, so does he. During the Q&amp;A, the actor said there'd be "no scripted singing in the season" on Graceland, but when Hollywood.com chatted with him, he said he'd still find an outlet for it.
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"I really, really wanna get back on stage. It's like an addiction you can't get anywhere else. That energy you have on stage, you can't find it anywhere else. I miss it, I miss singing," Tveit admitted. "[I'm] in the early stages of putting a concert to do in New York. I'll hopefully be diving in to that [when I get back], so hopefully that will satisfy my desire to sing, even if it's just for myself." Unlikely case.
Graceland premieres this summer on USA.
[Photo credit: USA]
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The producers of Fox's New Girl didn't originally intend for Jess and Nick to share that sexy kiss at the end of "The Cooler." When the cast read the episode at the table read before shooting, that middle-of-the-night makeout wasn't even included. Getting the duo to finally act on the feelings they had for one another was something everyone involved was very apprehensive to do.
"You don't want to screw that up too badly," star Jake Johnson tells the crowd gathered in Beverly Hills at a PaleyFest panel honoring the show — he understood the pressure involved in that interaction. Still, he was pleased that it finally came about. "It's something I wanted for Nick," he admits.
That kiss will hang over the two characters throughout the rest of the season, and creator Liz Merriwether says the story is very instinctual. "I think we're really trying to be honest with the characters and do what feels best," she says.
But just because the characters will continue to address their chemistry doesn't mean it will lead to anything significant. "I think they're very good together," Johnson says, but "I don't think they're ready to be in a long-term relationship."
Nick and Jess weren't the only hot couple discussed at the panel: we could see some very sexy Jess/Cece scenes in the future. Remember that slap fight? "It was like Three Stooges with boobs," star Zooey Deschanel jokes to the crowd. Here's what else the cast dished out during the panel:
Introducing...Schwinston? You heard that right. Max Greenfield and Lamorne Morris will be getting very intimate very soon, the men joked. Just kidding...or were they?
Cece Marries: Merriwether was very adept at dodging the question of whether Cece (Hannah Simone) will actually go through with her arranged marriage. And while Schmidt spends the next few episodes resigning himself to the fact that maybe he and Cece weren't meant to be, it seems like all hope is not lost for fans of the unlikely couple.
A Death in the Family: The context surrounding Nick and the gang's visit to Chicago in the aptly titled "Chicago" episode was revealed: They'll all head to the Windy City when Nick's dad dies. "It gets into a little deeper territory than the average sitcom," says executive producer Brett Baer. Adds Merriwether, "You watch our show to get sad, right?" While in Chi-town, we'll find out that Nick is actually the most together member of his family — a horrifying thought — and they love everyone except Jess, who somehow winds up dressing up as Elvis at some point during the half hour.
Old Friends: Among the former guest stars we'll see throughout the rest of Season 2 are Rob Reiner as Jess' dad (something Deschanel learned during the panel) and the old Asian man who gave Nick an uncomfortable water massage. Ellen Albertini Dow, the little old lady rapper from The Wedding Singer (who's 99 years old now!), will appear during the funeral episode.
Losing It: An upcoming episode comprised entirely of flashbacks tells the story of how each of the roommates lost their virginities. It happened for Schmidt during college (yes, the "Fat Schmidt" days), and "he gets overzealous with some lube," Merriwether reveals.
New Girl returns on Tuesday, March 19.
Follow Jean on Twitter @hijean
[PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Parry]
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It's easy to peg Mike "The Miz" Mizanin as a particular type of actor. He started as a contestant on MTV's The Real World. From there, he entered the world of professional wrestling. After years of duking it out in the ring, Mizanin hit "WWE Superstar" status, winning championships and becoming one of the main "characters" of the league's bloody soap opera. Like many of his wrestling forefathers, Mizanin leveraged his time in the WWE to make a movie: The Marine 3: Homefront.
But there's little luck to Mizanin's success. Most of it — whether it sounds cocky or not — is thanks to a strong belief in his own abilities.
"I am the most Must-See WWE Superstar of all time and I thought WWE Studios had a great opportunity to have me in one of their films," Mizanin says. "It's kind of surreal, to be in such a successful franchise. From Cena to Ted DiBiase to The Marine 3. Not only do I hope to continue the success, I hope to exceed both of them in success. And hopefully people will enjoy the movie more than any other movie they've ever seen in their entire lives."
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Mizanin grew up in Parma, Ohio, where, according to the actor, there was one path of life for every resident. "You go to college. After college, you go back to Parma, Ohio, you get a job and you get a family and that's what you do." Although much of his early life was spent breaking free and proving himself as a performer, Mizanin admits that The Marine 3 had him going back to his roots.
"[Director] Scott Wiper would be like, 'I want Mike from Parma,'" Mizanin says. "Because that's the kind of setting that [my character] Jake Carter lives in. That's what's different about it. I wanted to bring a real character into it." Mizanin has a laundry list of unexpected influences for his work in The Marine 3. He admits that Van Damme's Bloodsport and Seagal's Under Siege as movies he loved as a kid, but when it came to performing for the first time, he looked to legends, like Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Dirty Harry, and Steve McQueen in Bullitt. "They don't say much, but when Clint Eastwood walks into a room, there's that star power. That aura. That vibe you get."
In the end, Mizanin knew he had to dig deeper than just the "action hero" type. "Mike from Parma" was a part of it. The other was real life troops and the difficulties they experience after coming home from war. "When a marine comes home off leave, he's so used to being in battle, so used to protecting," Mizanin says. The actor insists that The Marine 3: Homefront is the type of movie designed for pure entertainment, yet it tackles a fairly serious subject: post-traumatic stress. He puts it bluntly: "[Jake] doesn't know how to live that normal life because he's used to being at war."
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That's sensitive material that the film — which delivers on all the shootout, explosion, fist-fighting craziness one would hope from a Marine movie — and Mizanin worked tirelessly to make it respectful and genuine. "I wanted to make it as authentic as I could with the Marines. I had Marines show me how to hold a gun, how to walk through a room, how to survey a room." The actor has experience in the war zone too: through WWE's "Tribute to the Troops," Mizanin has traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Bahrain to entertain U.S. soldiers and hear their frontline stories. Some he still can't believe.
"One kid, he's 19-years-old, he basically runs an armored vehicle. And the vehicle had an orange pole sticking out of it, so I ask him, 'What's the orange pole for?' And he said, 'it hits the land mine so it blows it up.' And I said, 'Have you been blown up before?' And he said, 'Yeah, got blown up yesterday.' I said, 'What?!'"
With all the ongoing discussions of military use and gun violence in the media, Mizanin stands by The Marine 3: Homefront as both a movie that paints Marines in a positive light and works as a piece of kick-ass entertainment. If it inspires someone to join the armed forces, he thinks that's great. If it inspires someone to pick up a camera and make their own action movie, that's great. If it inspires a kid from Parma to seize an opportunity and follow his dream, that's great too. Mizanin has experienced his own fair share of inspiration — from a WWE career to meeting soldiers in the Middle East — and he hopes The Marine 3 gives something back, one way or another.
"I always say: do whatever you want to do. If that's your dream, go for it. I always say, live free. Allow yourself to do whatever you want to do. Don't let people guide your life. You guide it."
The Marine 3: Homefront is out now on Blu-ray.
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
[Photo Credit: WWE Films; Twitter]
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Within moments of meeting the cast and director of the new movie Drinking Buddies, you can see exactly why the end product turned out as funny, loose, and honest as it did. Their rapport in real-life is just as fast and loose and funny is it played out on screen. Case in point: while discussing blurring the lines of male-female friendships, the conversation bouncing between director Joe Swanberg, and stars Jake Johnson and Ron Livingston, sounded like something, well, straight out of a comedy.
Joe: " I feel like when people who have had that kind of chemistry, through whatever means have gotten past it, and you've sort of gotten close to the flame and figured out how to stay close and create a boundary, those can become great friendships and you kind of have to push them past the breaking point and let them break a little bit and then you know where that is and then you both just agree to stay on your side of the line from there on out."
Ron: "Or you f**k the whole thing up and move to a different city."
Jake: "Again."
Drinking Buddies, which opened to raves and boisterous laughs at the Paramount Theater at SXSW this weekend, is a sexy, smart will-they-won't-they romantic comedy about two friends Luke and Katie —played by Johnson and co-star/producer Olivia Wilde — who toy with the boundaries of friendship, flirting and their relationships — both to each other, and their significant others Jill and Chris, played by Anna Kendrick and Livingston, respectively.
RELATED: SXSW Review: 'Drinking Buddies' is a Good Time, With Less Filler
But what sets Drinking Buddies apart from all the movies that ask the age old question "Can men and women really be friends?", aside from their refreshingly new take on it, is that this one was heavily improvised. Instead, Swanberg let his tremendously gifted ensemble take an outline and flesh out their characters into fully realized, fully flawed, but relatable people. Swanberg, Johnson, Kendrick, and Livingston all talked to Hollywood.com about the art improv, breaking rom-com stereotypes, and "the magic of four" in comedy.
Swanberg explained why he's a fan of improv, and why it worked so well with Drinking Buddies. "It's so weird that the way that we make movies is that we have these scripts and these characters in our head and then you have to go find people who then either match your pre-conceived idea of the character or can create that character through the performance. But you're plugging real humans into fantasy constructs and it's always seemed bizarre to me."
"When I meet with somebody to talk about doing a movie, it seems crazy to me to not incorporate the things that I like about that person into the movie," Swanberg continued, "Because, isn't that the reason why I hired them, because we had a great conversation or we liked each other? When I watch Drinking Buddies, it's so great for me because it's like all the things I enjoyed being around these four people are there in the movie. They can't not be, because of the way that we work, because we're actually engaging in conversations with each other, making the same kinds of jokes we would make. It's just such a nice little record of that moment of these four people interacting in a way where they're exactly the four people that I was like 'Oh yeah, these guys, they're great!'"
So what real-life things wound up manifesting in the movie? "Jake does this funny voice sometimes that makes me laugh, [and] there's the funny voice in the movie. It's really allowing the things that are charming, or annoying, all of that full spectrum of somebody... it's just creating a stage for those things to be captured, versus that person becoming a character on pre-written stuff."
For Livingston, the improv aspect was "scary and freeing." He explained, "There's that night before you start a film where it's like, 'This is awesome, I don't have to learn any of my lines,' and then you realize, 'But I am gonna have to shoot a scene!'"
But it's that very nature of improv that allowed the cast to create characters that live well outside the confines of most romantic comedy stereotypes. Take, for example, the overused trope of the shrill girlfriend or jerk boyfriend, simply used to lessen an audiences guilt about cheating or as a prop to push the would-be couple together. (Johnson jokingly altered his voice to sound like what that annoying character would have sounded like in their movie, "You're not allowed to hang out with your friends and drink beer! But I love you!") In Drinking Buddies, however, Kendrick's character Jill is anything but. In fact, you find yourself rooting for her, then against.
It was something that was important to Kendrick, creating a character that was not only likable, but walking the fine line of not being the villain. "That was something that, because there was no script per se, I was worried the audience would anticipate her to be that. And that that was something we would have to actively fight against. I didn't feel that Joe was going to push me in that direction, but I was concerned that would be the assumption."
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Kendrick made sure that nailing down what might seem like minor details, would actually be a major influence for how viewers percieve the character. The actress recalled, "I remember my first day [shooting] during the wardrobe fitting, every time I put on something that was a little too school marm-y, I was like, the first time we see her it can't be like, 'So here's the thing about Jill: she sucks'."
But for any comedy to work, improv or otherwise, at the end of the day it really depends on the actors and how they work with the material and each other. In Drinking Buddies, the foursome of Johnson, Wilde, Kendrick, and Livingston, all bounce off of each other in a way that only four could.
"I think it's like a team," Johnson said. "When you have a two-person thing, then you guys have to fill the voids with each other. With four, something like this, everyone in this cast is very good, so you don't need a star on this team, a Michael Jordan per se...you can win with the group. You either go hard for the laugh, or go hard for the moment or go hard to support a laugh or support a moment. With four, if everybody's good, it's fun."
Livingston said he likes how the dynamic of four "can shift to be really balanced or or really unbalanced and all it takes is one person walking away to go from unbalanced back to balanced again", while Kendrick cited "chamber plays, like Dinner with Friends and Closer and Through A Glass Darkly. I think there is something magic about four, for exactly that reason. Things get messy."
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Of course, for every unplanned, on-the-fly moment of Drinking Buddies, there was one that Swanberg planned: to have a character named Gene Dentler. In Drinking Buddies, Wilde's real-life beau Jason Sudeikis plays her and Johnson's boss Gene Dentler. "That's a cool story that I'm happy to tell," Swanberg said, "My friend David Lowry, he had a movie at Sundance this year called Ain't Them Bodies Saints. They started shooting the same day we started shooting Drinking Buddies and for both of us it was bigger projects than either of us had ever done before. We were texting and we were like, 'We should have the same character in both movies just as a little hat tip. There's a cop named Gene Dentler in his movie and Sudeikis plays Gene Dentler in ours. The name plate on Sudeikis' desk [in Drinking Buddies] that says Gene Dentler, we sent down to Shreveport and he shot it in his movie, too."
In a fittingly off-the-cuff moment, Kendrick marveled at the anecdote, "That's amazing, I had no idea!"
[Photo credit: Ben Richardson]
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When Harry Met Sally asked the age of question of "Can men and women be friends?" back in 1989, answered it (nope), and yet generations after are still plagued by it. Scores of movies about relationship dynamic grey areas — No Strings Attached, Friends with Benefits, Just Friends — have all come and gone, all answering that question the same way Harry and Sally did, but without any of the charm or true insight about male and female relationships past a certain age.
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Drinking Buddies, while not a gender-specific title, once again explores that topic, only with a hell of a lot more alchohol. Luke (Jake Johnson, in full-on, charming Nick Miller-with-an-intense-beard mode) and Kate (Olivia Wilde, once and for all proving her chops as a leading lady) are co-workers at a brewery who have an intense chemisty and palpable sexual tension. So why haven't these two friends hooked up? Especially with all that booze around? Well, for starters, they're both in relationships, he with an adorable, kind gal named Jill (the delightful Anna Kendrick) and she with, well, sort of a dullard named Chris (Ron Livingtson, stepping into the semi-villain role).
They're two young, attractive pals who, by all accounts should be together. The work hard, they play hard, they make each other laugh, and they genuinely care about each other. The problem is, unlike most romantic comedy couples who build their love and admiration for each other, are acutely aware of it. These buddies often blur the line between friends and something more with not-so-innocent innocent gestures like holding hands or cuddling on the couch.
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The interesting thing about Drinking Buddies — which played like a bona-fide crowd pleaser at its premiere at the SXSW festival on Saturday night in Austin — is that it taps into every romantic comedy sensibility (the mounting tension, anticipating a "happy ending") but goes in a completely different direction. In a typical romantic comedy, Luke's girlfriend would be a monster (and despite sharing an impulsive smooch with Chris during a weekend getaway with both the couples, she is far from) and we'd be rooting for these two to finally hook up.
But, towards the last half hour of Drinking Buddies (which starts to get a little bitter and hard to swallow like, well, the very beer they've been drinking through the entire thing) Kate's attitude turns from cute to grating, and her treatment of Luke (who is no saint himself in this situation) does the unthinkable: it makes you hope they just stay friends. I won't tell you how this whole things winds up, but I will tell you this: remarkably, no one seems to have a hangover during the entire movie. Now that is something to marvel.
It's fitting that Drinking Buddies is centered around beer drinkers. Like Sideways, it perfectly taps into a certain kind of drinker and a certain kind of romance, and it's the perfect analogy for the film itself: fun, doesn't take itself too seriously, will be liked by men and women equally, and even if you love most of it, it might still leave you with something of a bitter aftertaste if you were looking for the same reliable thing.
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Johnson, as he does every week on television, steals the show here, though to be fair the entire cast (including a cameo from Wilde's real-life love Jason Sudeikis, who gets in a few big laughs in his limited screen time) is talented and a total joy to watch. During the post-screening Q&amp;A, Wilde (who is also a producer on the project) told the audience it was the most fulfilling work of her career to date, and the enthusiasm certainly shines through.
The ingredients for a perfect comedy are all there, including keen direction from Joe Swanberg, but sometimes it can get a little foggy. (Hey, there's a lot of booze involved). Drinking Buddies really gets down to the nitty, gritty of male and female friendships and dynamics, and may ring uncomfortably true for some viewers, but in the end it's as fun as a night on the town with your best drinking buddy. Whatever your status with them might be.
[Photo credit: Ben Richardson]
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The 2013 SXSW festival kicks off today in Austin, and if you're a movie buff heading down to Texas to park in the festivities, well, you better learn how to be in a lot of places at once. This year's film lineup is as big as the Lone Star state itself. From headliners like The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and Spring Breakers, to buzzy premieres that include the Josh Duhamel-starrer Americana road trip gone wrong Scenic Route and the British ensemble marriage comedy I Give It A Year, to such already-bona fide festival favorites as Before Midnight and Much Ado About Nothing, there's no shortage of flicks to check out.
RELATED: The 2013 SXSW Film Lineup
So which flicks are can't miss? We picked 5 SXSW movies we're looking forward to seeing this week and think you should, too.
Short Term 12: Based loosely on director Destin Cretton's real-life experiences working at a group home for troubled teens, Short Term 12 will not only serve as the launching pad for Brie Larson's (pictured) breakout performance, the indie drama about the kids and counselors at a housing facility also looks to be one of the fest's most effective tearjerkers.
Drinking Buddies: Can't get enough of New Girl star Jake Johnson? Neither can we. But he's just one of the reasons why we'll be checking out the can-men-and-women-be-friends (especially when there's alcohol involved) comedy which also stars Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick, and Ron Livingston.
Kelly &amp; Victor: On the other end of the romance spectrum, there's Kelly &amp; Victor. The indie drama about an affair between a Liverpool couple looks like it has the potential to be the UK's version of Blue Valentine.
evil Dead: Last year's eagerly anticipated horror flick The Cabin in the Woods did not disappoint at SXSW, so hopes are high that yet another flick about a doomed trip to a cabin in the woods will be a hit. Expectations are sky-high for the grisly remake of Sam Raimi's 1981 classic, so you bet your mangled tongue we'll be there to see if it brings the goods. Sleep is overrated anyway.
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Broadway Idiot: There's a bevy of must-see documentaries playing at the festival this year (I Am Divine, Hawking, Downloaded, The Punk Singer are all on our docket) but we're most intrigued by how Green Day went from punk trio to Broadway babies. Plus, the band will be on hand for the premiere and we have no doubt Billie Joe Armstrong will have some interesting things to say.
Be sure to have these on your radar, too: Burma, Coldwater, Good Vibrations, Gus, Loves Her Gun, Milo, Some Girl(s), When Angels Sing, You're Next
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Check in with Hollywood.com all week for all of our SXSW coverage, including reviews, interviews, and so much more.
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It's about to be a Happy Ending for fans of original New Girl cast members Damon Wayans, Jr. and Jake Johnson: the duo have signed on to star in the buddy comedy flick Let's Be Cops. If you're a fan of shenanigans, this will be the movie for you. According to Deadline, Coach (who was later replaced by Winston, aka Lamorne Morris) and Nick Miller will play bored best friends with a zest for something more in their life. So instead of reading stuff on the Internet like normal people (this is what Wikipedia k-holes are for, you guys!), the two decide to impersonate cops (you know, a felony). The only problem with a casual felony? When they get you accidentally involved in real mobster antics. Enter: shenanigans! Tomfoolery! And probably a lot of yelling and flailing. Comedy!
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The film is being set up at 20th Century Fox by director Luke Greenfield who also co-wrote the script with Nick Thomas. Hollywood.com has reached out to a rep for Wayans Jr. and Johnson, but had not heard back at the time of publication.
Are you excited to see the duo team up on the big screen?
Follow Alicia on Twitter @alicialutes
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In The End of Love, the Mark Webber-directed film with a script by Mark Webber in which Mark Webber plays Mark Webber, we meet Mark Webber. Mark's a single dad whose stunted maturity, earnest nature, good heart, and bravery in the face of snakes make us root for him to prevail in his quest of life. Specifically, the raising of his young son Isaac and a possible romantic endeavor with new neighbor Lydia (Shannyn Sossamon). A charming early union of the duo, steeped in a bleak, heavy-hearted veneer, is seen in the below exclusive clip from the 2012 Sundance debut:
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Perhaps the most interesting thing about what looks to be an honest, plausibly painful slice of life, are the character names. Along with Scott Pilgrim supporting player Webber, we have the likes of Alia Shawkat, Michael Cera, Amanda Seyfried, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Ritter, Jake Johnson, Sarah Ramos, and Michael Bacall, among others, all playing versions of themselves in the quaint story.
The End of Love is currently on VOD and opens in limited theaters today, March 1.
Follow Michael Arbeiter on Twitter @MichaelArbeiter.
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It takes a special kind of comic actor who can find the perfect balance of being out-of-this-world funny and down-to-Earth vulnerable and real. So it makes perfect sense that Jake Johnson and Emmy nominee Max Greenfield, two comic actors who fit that bill, have such incredible chemistry on New Girl. It makes perfect sense that their characters Nick and Schmidt have been the best of buds for a decade, because these stars have such a natural rapport with each other, you wouldn't be surprised if you found out they have been friends that long in real life.
While the continually building chemistry between Nick and Jess is still on the lips and minds of New Girl fans (fittingly enough, Nick and Jess' lips were on each other's minds last night) last night's episode, "TinFinity" was really about the true New Girl odd couple, Nick and Schmidt.
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The two pals had reached a momentous milestone in their friendship: they were celebrating their ten year anniversary as roommates. While their wood and paper anniversaries were disasters, Schmidt was undeterred to let their tin anniversary go uncelebrated and were going ahead with their tin celebration. Well, at least Schmidt was going forward with planning an elaborate garden party and bequeathed the reasonably simple duties of balloons and porta potties onto Nick, full well knowing he would screw them up. (He was correct, he got a hot air balloon with no propane and bought a discarded piece porta potty). "I'm having an anxiety attack!" Nick cried, who has a history of upsetting Schmidt with his poor party planning skills, when given his simple assignment. Johnson has easily created one of the most charming slackers in television history and Greenfield the most lovable douchebag.
As Nick dealt with that terrifying reality, Jess had one of her own: that she couldn't get Nick's smoochin' lips off her brain. (I mean, can you blame her? That kiss was a knee-buckler). She decided it was time to meet a new guy to move on and — wouldn't you know it?! — Winston brought a new fella into the group as if on cue. Hey, Winston needed something to do this week!
That fella was a guy named Jax (played by Something Borrowed's Steve Howey), who just so happened to be a very handsome and very sensitive professional football player that Winston met at work and desperately wanted to befriend. I repeat, Jax was very sensitive. Poor Jess found that out the hard way at Nick and Schmidt's TinFinity extravaganza, when he not only cried after admitting that liked her, but making a declaration of love in front of all of her friends. Mind you, this was literally hours after they met. He's all yours, Winston!
Love seemed to be thick in the air at Nick and Schmidt's TinFinity party, as Cece's boyfriend of literally three episodes, the nice-enough Shivrang (Satya Bhabha) asked her to do this thing. And by this thing, I mean get engaged. Now, I know what you're thinking, this isn't what Cece really wants, she still wants Schmidt, and come on, she barely knows this guy. You're right, and much like Nick and Jess, the New Girl writers will likely dangle the hope of Schmidt and Cece in front of us for a while as well.
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Speaking of...poor Schmidt! It's bad enough he had to watch the love of his life get engaged at his own party (where Cece's other ex Robby inexplicably popped up for a minute) but he'd had a pretty serious spat with Nick. After Nick got annoyed that Schmidt had no faith in him for the party (he wrote his own speech for him), he snapped at him for no longer treating him like an equal, despite the fact that he was a grown man throwing a party for still living with his college roommate.
Nick and Schmidt are the two biggest kidders on the show (perhaps because they are just two big kids) but these two really put their hearts out there during this spat. It was honest and raw and both aired their long-gestating grievances with each other. And Jess thinks Nick has no feelings! Pshaw, I say! (Jess may have run away from him at the end of the ep to avoid his mouth, but that's no different than when Nick moonwalked away from her. These two just want to run towards each other).
Of course, when Nick saw how crestfallen Schmidt was at seeing Cece get engaged, he patched things up with him, had a heart-to-heart about life's disappointments, and got drunk in a grounded hot air balloon. After all, he is the Burt to his Ernie, the Iceman to his Iceman, and that's just the kind of thing that best friends do. Jake Johnson and Max Greenfield, you are equals: comedy equals.
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The best moments and lines from last night's episode of New Girl "TinFinity":
- The re-emergence of Fat Schmidt. Is it just me, or is Fat Schmidt essentially Fat Monica from Friends? A formerly heavy loser who turns into a svelte clean freak? These two would have made an amazing couple. Additionally, hippie Nick would have gotten along swimmingly with hippie Ted from How I Met Your Mother in college.
- "Does he think you're Omar Epps?" - Schmidt to Winston, after he brought Jax to the bar.
- "I wanna fall asleep in them like Thumbelina" - Nick, discussing Jax's big, strong hands.
- "If you dig a hole in a dirt field, I'm gonna kill you!" - Schmidt's threat to Nick. (In the end, that may have been a better alternative).
- "That's what the nursing home said about my mattress!" - Nick rationalizing buying actual garbage/becoming a "small business owner".
- "Ten Years. Two Hearts. One Home. Loyalty and great conversation." - The theme of Schmidt and Nick's Tin-niversary.
- The various collages, cut-outs and photos of Nick and Schmidt scattered throughout their party.
- Jess' rightfully freaked-out reaction to Jax's pre-proposal. ("I'm innocent, I was framed!")
- Nick describing his lifelong friendship with Schmidt as "upsetting, but kinda great." Nope, just great.
[Photo credit: Greg Gayne/FOX]
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